


Open World Close

by Lady Adain (pocketTherapist)



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Video Game World, M/M, UraIchi Week 2019, Video Game Mechanics, more to come - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-14 17:58:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18953116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocketTherapist/pseuds/Lady%20Adain
Summary: Quest Alert!TutorialLearning the RopesFind your way into the nearby town.





	Open World Close

Ichigo examines the box in his hands with some curiosity. He's not usually one for gaming, much, but the temptation of the first major VR-RPG is too much to be passed by. 

 

He sets up the headset and settles back into his chair as the game finishes installing, the initialization drowning out the familiar room with a rapidly solidifying forest. 

 

It's  _ gorgeous _ . The sheer amount of work that must have gone into the realistic setting around him is mind boggling. He reaches over to stroke the trunk of a massive oak, and the bark under his fingertips feels no different from that on the tree outside his house. 

 

Ichigo spends a good five minutes just looking around, marveling at the virtual world around him. Eventually, he steps into the worn path in front of him. As soon as his foot touches earth, a little translucent box springs into being before him. 

 

**Quest Alert!**

**Tutorial**

**Learning the Ropes**

 

_ Find your way into the nearby town _ . 

  
  


Ichigo shrugs and moves forward, the mental commands moving his virtual body as easily as if it were his tangible one. A flick of his hand dismisses the quest box, and a certain twisting gesture summons his weapon--a standard katana--to hand. It’s easy enough to grasp the basics; Ichigo knows from reviews that the true strength of the game lies in the massive open world, complex plot lines, and realistic NPCs. 

 

He breaks into a jog, and a little stamina bar flickers into existence in the top left of his vision, accompanied by a general health bar and another one representing his magic, whatever this particular game calls it. 

 

Things after that flow more or less smoothly. The introductory village-quests are simple enough, meant to familiarize a player with the controls, attacks, and inventory. Just as he thinks he’s got the hang of things, a woman sprints into town, ragged and tear-streaked, to throw herself at his feet and beg his assistance rescuing her little girl from a rampaging beast.

 

Ichigo is not a man who considers himself easily impressed, but there is no other word for the work put into the programming here. Were he not specifically looking, he’d have been able to switch her for any human and not tell the difference. 

 

Things go from there, a slowly building cascade that draws Ichigo in more than he’d readily admit to anyone on the outside. The monster is defeated easily enough, but its final action tears open a glowing portal it had meant to use to get home--and leaves it hanging there, open to anything on the other side, far more powerful things that normally  _ couldn’t _ get to this side.

 

He tries to fight one of them and is  _ vastly _ overwhelmed. Only the timely intervention of the “Mysterious Passing Shopkeeper” saves him.

 

Ah, the ever-present Mentor figure. 

 

For whatever reason, grinding under the now-named Urahara Kisuke gives decent results, and the Mentor becomes a general waypoint for his player, a training ground and store (hah) and healer all at once. It’s actually convenient as hell, and it’s why the third arc storyline takes him so completely off-guard, when Urahara  _ puts a sword through him from behind _ . 

 


End file.
